


I know my value

by LadyWillow



Series: Scenes from the Cutting Room Floor [2]
Category: Agent Carter (TV)
Genre: F/M, Light Angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-15
Updated: 2016-02-15
Packaged: 2018-05-20 18:11:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 487
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6019941
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyWillow/pseuds/LadyWillow
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It only takes a look. But she sees something she cannot un-see.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I know my value

Daniel Sousa never spoke about his life or work in New York. Not to her anyway. If she pushed, asked questions, he would tell her about Central Park in the spring, or Christmas with his large, noisy family. But never about work. 

Never about her.

She had known, from Rose and Daniel's reaction to walking in on her and Peggy in the office, that there was something. But then he asked her to marry him - so sweet, so nervous, stumbling over his words even more than his feet - and she had pushed it under - that feeling that there was more to say than had been said.

Then he brought a broken body to her house to be fixed - a child bringing a precious toy to his mother, confident in her ability, knowing she would make it all right. And with breaking heart and growing anger, she had fixed what was broken.

_"You didn't tell me."_

_"You said you had come to California to make a new start, but you were running away. From her. From Peggy."_

_"I think you are in love with her."_

And his silence said it all.

But she had at least had the sense to fall in love with a good man, if not an unattached one. He had tried to convince her: first that there was nothing, then that it was over.

"Perhaps I had some feelings for her, but then I met you. I love you, Violet. I asked you to marry me because I love you."

She closed her eyes on the pain. What a difference a few words makes. Love, but not in love.

He knelt, and God knew - she knew  - how difficult that was for him, beside the chair she had collapsed in. "I love you, Violet. I want to marry you. I'll be a good husband - a good father - a good provider. Isn't that what you want?"

Violet shook her head, eyes still shut. But she had. That had been all she wanted: a good husband, three children, a nice little house she could keep warm and happy for her family. He was offering her everything she had dreamed of - everything she had dreamed of with him.

But then she had seen the way he looked at her - love burned so deep in his heart it bubbled up like lava through his voice. And the way she looked at him - trust so strong it grounded her through unimaginable pain.

And she shook her head again, and opened her eyes. Because surgery has to be clean, and you cannot hide behind the mask forever.

"No," she said. "It's not enough. It could have been, if I hadn't... But it isn't enough for me now, not with you. I deserve to be loved the way you love her."

He sat on the couch still stained with blood and dropped his face into his hands.

"Aren't I worth that, Daniel?"

 


End file.
